i'm gonna build a little routing (maybe mail and jabber also) box for small network of 5 boxes, with 486 DX/2 66 and 16MB ram and 1,2 GB hdd and isa network cards and deciding to put the gentoo on it. i like the phylosophy of gentoo's hands on everything so this is a pros for me, but i think there are a lot of specialized distribution to provide such thinks to me. Any suggestions ?
One more question. Is it posible to build gentoo on stronger computer, with 486 flags or so and then simpy put that in 486 box ? Are there any performance improvements in building everything from scratch for such a processor ? If there are, any suggestions for flags settings ?

I agree with lamer. It will take forever to build. Look at something purpose-built like, Devil Linux or any of the other appliance-type linux distros. Those are designed to run on older hardware and you'll probably have a much easier time getting them set up and operating.

Now, if you're looking for a challenge/opportunity to learn/etc, then by all means, go for it. However, if you want something that Just Works, I think you'll be happier with something else.

--kurt_________________The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

thx guys for suggestions.
Yes you're right. it's challenge for me so if it's possible to build gentoo in way a described (or see below) i'm gonna play with it.
only one point. i don't want to build everything on that old machine, therefore i was asking if it's possible to build everything on my regular machine whitch is of course a lot of faster. I now there is now problem build gentoo on one partition while running gentoo on another partition. Question is, if it's possible to build gentoo-486 (with flags for 486) procesor on my duron and after that it will run on 486 processor ?

You should look into IPCop which is a firewall/router/intruder detection.

I wouldn't recommend running a mail server on a router/firewall for security reasons, but placing it in a DMZ behind the firewall._________________There's someone in my head but it's not me - Pink Floyd